PlanetCatfish.com

ive been keeping fish for about 8 years or so, but ive never really considered checking pH till now that im resetting up my larger aquarium. So i bought the "API pH test kit" and it gave me a reading of 7.6 or greater, so i went back to the petstore and bought the "Seachem pH Alert" that goes from 5.8-8.2 and its giving me a reading of 6.2.
i changed the location of the Seachem and tried the API test kit again but both keep giving me the same different levels as before.
so i was wondering why this is so??

If you live anywhere within several stonesthrows of Austin (that is, your water comes from the Edwards Aquifer), I'd expect the API testkit is reading a bit low and the Seachem kit is reading WAY low - pH 8.0 or slightly higher is what you'd get from the tap.

I don't know the pH for EVERYWHERE in Texas, so it's entirely possible that either of your readings are correct, if you are outside of the Edwards Aqufer area. But I believe around San Antonio and Dallas are both similar to Austin.

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Mats

yea i live in San Antonio,
and so what can i do to get more accurate readings?
i want to get my pH around 7.8-8.2
My tanks been up and running for 2 weeks.
i already added chemicals for the chlorine, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites.
now i just wanna get the pH right.

Scrolling down this page:
http://www.saws.org/our_water/waterqual ... arts.shtml

shows that typical value is 7.7, and ranges from 7.3 - 8.1. So you may want to add some calciferous rock if you want to up the pH.

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Mats